The First Two Weeks: The Fun and the Not-So-Fun

Remember the school fun I mentioned in my last post? Well, I don’t imagine this fun as being like pizza for dinner every day of the week. More like the raisins sprinkled into the down-to-earth, slightly-soggy flakes of your Raisin Bran. To give you a sampling of how the combination of fun and not-so-fun has worked out for us so far, I present to you a rough outline of our first two weeks of school.

Day 1:My last post gives you a little glimpse of our first day…A history quiz involving chocolate chip cookies to celebrate the start of school…The good stuff. On the other side of things, a little counseling session is required with my easily distracted Child #1. We have a tear-filled conversation about how it is not wise to spend an hour searching out the most comfortable place to do her work, but it also won’t do any good to sit and cry about it. We put our mistakes behind us and move on, yes? Yes.

Day 2: We are studying the moon in science, which is pretty cool. We go over our usual workbooks for math, language, spelling, and handwriting. Child #3 basically in heaven. Child #2 complains that everything is too easy. I assure her it won’t last long.

Day 3: I need to print off a few pages for our morning devotions and history, and…the printer is out of ink. Okay, we’re just going to pray together and postpone history until Friday. School goes fairly smoothly otherwise. Husband comes home after two nights away. Everyone rejoices.

Day 4: Printer repaired. Back to studying the moon in science. We make a chart so we can observe the moon phases for the next 4 weeks. Science class is repeatedly interrupted by a certain little boy who has decided that now is THE TIME for interaction with Mommy. He wants to climb into Mommy’s lap, and push Mommy out of her chair, and tell Mommy all about his toys, and shove his fingers into Mommy’s eye sockets. It is just…darling. Ahem. Somehow school gets finished anyway.

Day 5: I am tired and not in the greatest of moods today, but we press on and get school finished. Time for the weekend! We celebrate by making a Costco run to exchange a box of diapers for Pull-ups. They will henceforth be used exactly like diapers, just more expensive.

Days 6-7: Busy weekend with various errands, projects, and events at church. I do not dedicate much time to catching up on the somewhat neglected household chores. I’ll get to them eventually…

Day 8: Husband heads back out of town. We study self-control in our Bible study. Our very emotive Child #2 gives an excellent demonstration of the opposite of self-control during our study. She then sets to work decrying the extremely unjust practice of having to review concepts in her schoolwork that she obviously already knows and that are so easy I don’t know why they never give me any hard stuff. After completing her torture session, her mother decides to take the boy outside for a breather. It is a nice breather.

Day 9: We return to our study of astronomy, moving on to Mars, and…oops, we’ve forgotten to look at the moon for the past several days. Aaaand it looks like we are not only nearing the new moon, but it’s rising so early in the morning and setting so early in the evening that it’s probably not even visible. Great timing, Mommy! Fortunately, we have the internet to tell us what it would look like if we could see it. Yay internet! In other news, Child #2 endures a less extensive torture session…Mommy has decided to let her do more unassisted and see what happens.

Day 10: Mommy stayed up too late last night working on a project and is dragging a little today. But we are out of milk and juice, and certain children will surely perish without them, so we make a run to the store. While in the parking lot, the little boy starts begging to “see da kitty” – i.e., visit the Petco down the street (does not contain actual kitties). Mommy thinks this sounds like a fun field trip for the week. The children enjoy visiting the small rodents, parakeets, fish, and reptiles.

Back at home, Mommy discovers that Child #2 was unusually sloppy about her work yesterday. She insists that Child #2 must be more thorough or lose video game privileges. Child #2 protests that her schoolwork is WAY too hard. She didn’t want it THIS hard – just IN THE MIDDLE. Mommy requires another breather. Daddy returns home. Everyone rejoices.

Day 11: The older girls completed some extra schoolwork yesterday and are able to finish early. They have a friend over to play for a few hours. Everyone rejoices. Mommy, however, is still recovering from her recent late night and is trying to be more careful with her diet, both of which result in grouchiness later that day. Food and sleep are declared stupid, but alas, inconveniently necessary for survival.

Day 12: The remnants of a tropical storm pass over, so there is rain. Lots of rain. Our schoolwork goes in no particular order today. It gets done, and that’s what counts. Child #1 and I go to the store to refill our thinning supplies in the refrigerator. Food is perhaps not so stupid when you have more choices. Also, sleep is awesome once you get it.

Days 13-14: It is Labor Day weekend. Daddy gives Mommy some time to herself and works on cleaning the house. We buy our first grill. Food is awesome again.

Day 15: It is Labor Day, and the teacher feels like observing it, so we do. Everyone rejoices. We do some more cleaning, play some games, take an evening walk, and find Mars in the night sky. Homeschooling is awesome.

Two weeks down!

-Jessica

Photo Credit: First image graphic design by Charity Klicka; all other images courtesy of Jessica Cole.

2 thoughts on “The First Two Weeks: The Fun and the Not-So-Fun”

Thank you. I sometimes forget that I am not the only one with homeschooling trials. My children are older but not necessarily easier. It is just different now that they don’t get to play outside as much. I still would not change a thing about homeschooling. I love all our trials good, bad and life changing!